MLCD: overview of NASA's Mars laser communications demonstration system

Boroson, Don M.; Biswas, Abhijit; Edwards, Bernard L.

doi:10.1117/12.543014

Cited by 94 publications

(45 citation statements)

References 2 publications

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“…In this section we investigate the achievable bit rate versus receiver telescope size. According to MLCD initial plans [9] the flight terminal has a 30cm diameter near diffraction limited telescope that transmit a pulse position modulated (PPM) signal with a wavelength of 1.06µm and average power of 5W. Table 1 shows the link parameter variation range for a typical Mars to Earth communication link [10].…”

Section: Communication Linkmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Attention to the Optical Deep Space Communication has boosted since NASA has announced the Mars Laser Communication Demonstration (MLCD) for Mars mission, scheduled for launch in 2009 [8,9]. The available link capacity during satellite orbit around Mars varies an order of magnitude due to variation in distance, background noise and atmosphere turbulence [10].…”

Section: Communication Linkmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Analysis of telescope arrays for deep space optical communications

Eftekhar

Khjorasani

Adibi

et al. 2005

2005 IEEE Aerospace Conference

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it has been very well established in the literature that the cost of a large aperture telescope grows exponentially as a function of its diameter. On Earth, large aperture telescopes in excess of 10m also have the disadvantage of undergoing gravitational and other environmental effects. Array configurations, instead, may be the potential alternatives when large aperture telescopes are considered for ground-based and space-based deep space applications. Because of their parallel architecture, telescope arrays have noticeable advantages over single monolithic large aperture telescopes in terms of cost, weight, reliability, scalability, and modularity. In this paper, the design concept and the analysis of a typical telescope array for deep space optical communication is provided and its performance is compared with that of a typical monolithic telescope 12 .

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Section: Communication Linkmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Communication Linkmentioning

confidence: 99%

Analysis of telescope arrays for deep space optical communications

Eftekhar

Khjorasani

Adibi

et al. 2005

2005 IEEE Aerospace Conference

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“…Another possible candidate in earth-to-satellite communications is the use of flying vehicles and high-altitude-platforms as beam relays [204][205][206]. When no amplification or intermediate relays are available, as in deep space communications [207], the losses may not be mitigated and more sophisticated receivers that operate at very low powers (photoncounting) are required [208].…”

Section: Satellite Links and High-altitude Platformsmentioning

confidence: 99%

A review of communication-oriented optical wireless systems

Borah

Boucouvalas

Davis

et al. 2012

J Wireless Com Network

185

104

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This article presents an overview of optical wireless (OW) communication systems that operate both in the short-(personal and indoor systems) and the long-range (outdoor and hybrid) regimes. Each of these areas is discussed in terms of (a) key requirements, (b) their application framework, (c) major impairments and applicable mitigation techniques, and (d) current and/or future trends. Personal communication systems are discussed within the context of point-to-point ultra-high speed data transfer. The most relevant application framework and related standards are presented, including the next generation Giga-IR standard that extends personal communication speeds to over 1 Gb/s. As far as indoor systems are concerned, emphasis is given on modeling the dispersive nature of indoor OW channels, on the limitations that dispersion imposes on user mobility and dispersion mitigation techniques. Visible light communication systems, which provide both illumination and communication over visible or hybrid visible/ infrared LEDs, are presented as the most important representative of future indoor OW systems. The discussion on outdoor systems focuses on the impact of atmospheric effects on the optical channel and associated mitigation techniques that extend the realizable link lengths and transfer rates. Currently, outdoor OW is commercially available at 10 Gb/s Ethernet speeds for Metro networks and Local-Area-Network interconnections and speeds are expected to increase as faster and more reliable optical components become available. This article concludes with hybrid optical wireless/radio-frequency (OW/RF) systems that employ an additional RF link to improve the overall system reliability. Emphasis is given on cooperation techniques between the reliable RF subsystem and the broadband OW system.

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“…8,9 There were three challenges in implementing this array detector concept. The first was to develop APD detectors with sufficiently low t ho DCR and good detection efficiency.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

InP-based single-photon detector arrays with asynchronous readout integrated circuits

et al. 2008

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Abstract.We have developed and demonstrated a highduty-cycle asynchronous InGaAsP-based photon counting detector system with near-ideal Poisson response, roomtemperature operation, and nanosecond timing resolution for near-infrared applications. The detector is based on an array of Geiger-mode avalanche photodiodes coupled to a custom integrated circuit that provides for lossless readout via an asynchronous, nongated architecture. We present results showing Poisson response for incident photon flux rates up to 10 million photons per second and multiple photons per 3-ns timing bin. Applications to date using Geiger-mode avalanche photodiodes ͑GM APDs͒, such as three-dimensional laser radar 1 and quantum-key distribution, 2 use gated Geigermode operation in which the diode is biased above its breakdown voltage for a fixed duration at a regular interval.3 This gated mode of operation, however, limits the utility of GM APD detectors to low-duty-cycle applications, where the gate is synchronous with the optical signal. We present an approach to expand the utility of GM APDs to applications requiring high duty cycle and asynchronous operation. 4 We demonstrate that by operating an array of GM-APD detectors asynchronously, the aggregated array response approaches that of an ideal photon-counting detector, maintaining the Poisson statistics of the input beam.In asynchronous mode an individual APD is overbiased until an avalanche event ͑firing͒ occurs, which causes the bias to be reduced below breakdown for a fixed holdoff time before rearming. During the avalanche process carriers populate in-band traps. If the device is overbiased while these traps are filled, it can lead to spontaneous firing when the traps depopulate. To avoid this undesirable premature firing, known as afterpulsing, the bias must be held below breakdown for a holdoff time to allow for the traps to clear prior to rearming. 5 In this asynchronous mode of operation, the device spends the majority of the time in the overbiased state and is only brought below breakdown to quench the avalanche and clear the traps, maximizing the time available to detect photons. This is in contrast to gated mode, where the device typically is only biased for a few percent of the time.The typical minimum holdoff time for an InP-based near-infrared APD at room temperature is on the order of 1 s, 6 which would limit an operating asynchronous APD to an average incident photon flux around 10 6 photons/ s. As the rate increases beyond 10 6 photons/ s the detector spends the majority of the time in holdoff, where incident photons are blocked from being detected. For a simple Poisson source, the probability that a single APD element is blocked can be calculated as the fraction of time the APD is in holdoff:where ͗t ␥ ͘ is the mean time to fire after rearm, which is simply the reciprocal of the expectation value of the perpixel firing rate, and t ho is the holdoff time. By distributing the incident photon beam over an array of APDs and digitally aggregating the output of each inde...

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MLCD: overview of NASA's Mars laser communications demonstration system

Cited by 94 publications

References 2 publications

Analysis of telescope arrays for deep space optical communications

Analysis of telescope arrays for deep space optical communications

A review of communication-oriented optical wireless systems

InP-based single-photon detector arrays with asynchronous readout integrated circuits

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